Hi, this is an unusual board to ask a question like this, but i hope someone here went to a concert.
I read on our disney concert hall website that you free to go in any clothing, but i feel kinda reluctant to go in t-shirt.
Anyway, how did you dress yourself for such a concert?
Like i said, maybe not the right forum but i give it a try.
Thanks
On Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:06:02 +0000, yester64 wrote:
> Hi, this is an unusual board to ask a question like this, but i hope
> someone here went to a concert.
> I read on our disney concert hall website that you free to go in any
> clothing, but i feel kinda reluctant to go in t-shirt. Anyway, how did
> you dress yourself for such a concert?
>
> Like i said, maybe not the right forum but i give it a try.
I used to play violin in an orchestra and have gone to many, many
classical concerts over the years.
I’d say “business casual” would be considered appropriate in most venues,
depending obviously on the venue for the event. If it were an opera, I’d
dress more formally, and if it were something like going to see the
Boston Pops play a 4th of July concert outdoors, less formal.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
i’ve been to ‘classical’ concerts in formal attire and in shorts,
T-shirt and sandals…
and, most ‘style’ forms in between (sport coat with or without tie,
three piece suit, open collar w/sweater, nice clean jeans, near rags,
etc etc etc)…
the selection in each case based on time of day, location, entry cost
and available pre-event info…
that is, i didn’t wear formal to an event billed as “an afternoon in
the park with a picnic basket and Chopin” nor did i wear shorts and
sandals to “An evening at the Symphony with Big Shot From London guest
conductor” and, i wore what i was working in to “Brown-bag lunch with
Mozart in the court yard” of the Pentagon…
however, depending on your personality and need for the acceptance of
others (or not) you can wear what you have or what you want to
anything, anywhere, anytime…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
I am happy of the answers. Did not know that some actually went to classical concerts.
Now i now what to wear or at least to judge.
Business casual i can certainly do, just not a smoking.
@jim i envy you for your ability to play violin. Did you study it? Just curious.
On Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:36:01 +0000, yester64 wrote:
> @jim i envy you for your ability to play violin. Did you study it? Just
> curious.
I did study it for about 10 years - haven’t played in many years, though
Through high school, I took private lessons with the director of the
University of Minnesota orchestra - had a few other private teachers as
well over the years. I could’ve chosen that as a profession, but I
realized that it was fun and I didn’t want to make practice a “chore” (I
realized I didn’t have the discipline to drive myself every day).
There are days I miss it, though - I often will listen to pieces I used
to play; the downside of listening to something you’re that familiar
with, though, is that you hear every difference from the way you learned
it. I’ll often listen to, for example, the BBC Proms and hear works I’ve
played, and as I’m listening, I’m thinking “too fast/too slow, whoops,
that’s not how that goes…no, that repeat is in the original but nobody
performs it because it doesn’t make sense” - it’s sometimes hard to just
listen and enjoy.
In a way, it’s like when I read; I’ve got a couple book credits to my
name, and after I did the writing, I stopped reading for a number of
years because I would be analyzing the structure of what I was reading,
finding typos and grammatical errors, and that “analysis” (what I call my
“internal editor”) would prevent me from enjoying the story.
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
I have to say that it nice to know how to play this instrument. Always enjoyed players like Eddie Jobson who play it and inspire me.
I, myself, only learned to play guitar and recorder (this would be a ‘blockfloete’ in german).
Haven’t played for a long time and have no instrument at all anymore. But i want to get again at least either, the guitar or the recorder.
A jazz guitarist told me how to play guitar and teached me some techniques i will never forget.
This is absolutely true. I remember an old friend girlfriend who did play more professionaly and she insisted that conducter x played it to quick. But to us there was no difference at all.
But a similar experiance i can account to as well. I recently bought ‘again’ Johann Strauss Walzes which was conducted by Karajan. I really can remember that in my previously owned recording that ‘the blue danube’ was different. But i could not make it really out. The recording itself is very dated.
But besides that, i do enjoy to listen to it.
If you played an instrument you just have a different ear for it and tend to judge. Even though i was not professional on any level, i can understand. I played only in school and in a band once. Long time ago. 
On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:36:01 +0000, yester64 wrote:
> This is absolutely true. I remember an old friend girlfriend who did
> play more professionaly and she insisted that conducter x played it to
> quick. But to us there was no difference at all. But a similar
> experiance i can account to as well. I recently bought ‘again’ Johann
> Strauss Walzes which was conducted by Karajan. I really can remember
> that in my previously owned recording that ‘the blue danube’ was
> different. But i could not make it really out. The recording itself is
> very dated.
> But besides that, i do enjoy to listen to it. If you played an
> instrument you just have a different ear for it and tend to judge. Even
> though i was not professional on any level, i can understand. I played
> only in school and in a band once. Long time ago. 
For me it’s even more bizarre, though, because if it’s a piece I’ve
played, I often will hear the mistakes that were made during the
performance I remember most - for example, in a summer youth orchestra
camp, we did a performance of William Tell (the unabridged version, which
is quite different from what most people remember when they hear the
title - they think ‘The Lone Ranger’ theme). In the opening, there’s a
cello solo, and now I can never listen to it without hearing the
conductor sing because the solo cellist (a very good friend of mine) was
listening for a cue from the french horns and they were lost, so he
didn’t come in where he was supposed to.
So the conductor started to quietly sing the part so Tim could find his
place.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:36:01 +0000, yester64 wrote:
> I have to say that it nice to know how to play this instrument. Always
> enjoyed players like Eddie Jobson who play it and inspire me. I, myself,
> only learned to play guitar and recorder (this would be a ‘blockfloete’
> in german).
> Haven’t played for a long time and have no instrument at all anymore.
> But i want to get again at least either, the guitar or the recorder. A
> jazz guitarist told me how to play guitar and teached me some techniques
> i will never forget.
That’s a great way to learn. Having a good teacher really helps a
lot.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On 2010-10-04 18:18, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:36:01 +0000, yester64 wrote:
> So the conductor started to quietly sing the part so Tim could find his
> place.
X’-)
Interesting anecdote. We never get to know those things from outside. I love classical music, but my
ear is not that good.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
On Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:24:36 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2010-10-04 18:18, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:36:01 +0000, yester64 wrote:
>
>
>> So the conductor started to quietly sing the part so Tim could find his
>> place.
>
> X’-)
>
> Interesting anecdote. We never get to know those things from outside. I
> love classical music, but my ear is not that good.
It’s always fun to have stories like that - in a similar vein, the youth
orchestra I was in that performed in the USSR back in '88 was scheduled
for two concerts at Gorky Park, but was rained out for the first one and
rained on (literally) at the second.
The funniest bit was when we started Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” - 4
times in total, because we’d start, and it’d start raining. We’d stop,
it’d stop raining. This went on for probably 15-20 minutes.
We finally played through the rain, with the brass/woodwind sections
getting up and going to the back of the band shell, and the string
sections moving backwards during the performance.
String instruments are held together with water-soluble glue - so playing
in the rain is a really bad idea. But we got to the end of the piece,
and the 5 or 6 people left in the audience really appreciated it.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On 2010-10-04 20:40, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:24:36 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
…
> We finally played through the rain, with the brass/woodwind sections
> getting up and going to the back of the band shell, and the string
> sections moving backwards during the performance.
I can imagine
> String instruments are held together with water-soluble glue - so playing
> in the rain is a really bad idea. But we got to the end of the piece,
> and the 5 or 6 people left in the audience really appreciated it.
Soluble glue? Ah…! Rings a bell, now I understand.
When I was a kid, my parents though that I should learn to play something. There was a… bandurria
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandurria) at home, inherited from dunno which grandfather or even
farther back. It had wooden “sticks” to tune it (dunno the English name).
At the time and in my city, music lessons were rare in school. But there was a teacher (a tentative
program of the school, outside of the curricula), so I was sent there.
The teacher must have hated my guts, I think. He was polite, but the instrument was a pain to tune.
Literally. The sticks are not easy to move, because the modern counterpart has a metallic screw and
wheel that de-multiplies the movement. I haven’t located a photo of those wooden tuning sticks to
show to you. The old instrumment had used strings made of cat gut (pork or cow guts, I believe),
and silk wrapped in thin metal, but at much less tension that the modern strings.
The teacher refused to tune again my instrument with those old sticks, it was so dificult. So my
father replaced the sticks with those modern screw things, for tuning. He was very… enterprising?
I mean not taking the instrument to a shop, but us both (actually, him) buying the screws, sawing
for hours, by hand, and doing it all himself with a little help from me.
Then the next class time, the old strings broke with the tension the chap gave to them while tuning,
catching and hurting his hands. So my father bought new strings. Then the bridge (the rectangle
beneath the hole in the wikipedia photo, where in the old model the strings were tied) jumped with
all the strings, hitting the teacher, again. So my father glued the bridge, using good carpenter
glue. Not water soluble glue, that’s rubbish.
Then the whole cover jumped, with the bridge solidly glued and the strings in place, catching the
teacher hands another more time.
X’-)
I laugh now, but… my father repaired it again, but I quitted that class soon. My fingers could not
press those strings, they bit my fingers like knife edges. I think the teacher was relieved
Water soluble glue… oh my.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Anyway, how did you dress yourself for such a concert?
I totally suit up when going to a classical / orchestral happening. It’s a rare occasion and personally I think it’s pretty fun to be formal sometimes.
I went to see Nigel Kennedy play the “Quatro Stagioni” by Antonio Vivaldi years ago. A friend had tickets for a concert in London, but could not make it himself, so he offered me one to join his boyfriend. We thought dressing up was not necessary, we’d seen Nigel Kennedy on TV looking quite Boy George-ish, so no problem to go in a leather jacket, leather jeans and Doc Martin boots. That’s what we thought. No point of getting in at all, then suddenly we found ourselves amongst hundreds of tuxes…At that time I was a bit more of a revolutionaire, so I was proud that everybody was looking at us…
On Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:40:08 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> When I was a kid, my parents though that I should learn to play
> something. There was a… bandurria
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandurria) at home, inherited from dunno
> which grandfather or even farther back. It had wooden “sticks” to tune
> it (dunno the English name).
Very interesting! I’d never heard of this particular instrument before,
how does it compare in sound to something like a Balalaika?
On a violin, we call the tuning sticks “pegs” - if the string wraps
around it and you twist the peg to raise/lower the pitch, that’s probably
an accurate term to use.
> The teacher must have hated my guts, I think. He was polite, but the
> instrument was a pain to tune. Literally. The sticks are not easy to
> move, because the modern counterpart has a metallic screw and wheel that
> de-multiplies the movement. I haven’t located a photo of those wooden
> tuning sticks to show to you. The old instrumment had used strings made
> of cat gut (pork or cow guts, I believe), and silk wrapped in thin
> metal, but at much less tension that the modern strings.
Similar to a violin - though today the ‘gut’ strings you can buy tend to
be synthetic, IIRC.
> The teacher refused to tune again my instrument with those old sticks,
> it was so dificult. So my father replaced the sticks with those modern
> screw things, for tuning. He was very… enterprising? I mean not taking
> the instrument to a shop, but us both (actually, him) buying the screws,
> sawing for hours, by hand, and doing it all himself with a little help
> from me.
>
> Then the next class time, the old strings broke with the tension the
> chap gave to them while tuning, catching and hurting his hands. So my
> father bought new strings. Then the bridge (the rectangle beneath the
> hole in the wikipedia photo, where in the old model the strings were
> tied) jumped with all the strings, hitting the teacher, again. So my
> father glued the bridge, using good carpenter glue. Not water soluble
> glue, that’s rubbish.
Hehehehe, it’s not fun having a bridge break. My violin fell out of my
hands on a marble stage once and the bridge snapped in half. That was
the afternoon before a performance, and I did actually play the
instrument in the concert that evening - but we had to have a new bridge
made (using the old one as a template) and the fingerboard had come off
in the fall as well, so that was actually glued in place and had gaffer’s
tape down the sides to keep it in place during the performance.
It was fortunate we knew a violin maker who could come out and repair the
fingerboard - and that the music store was still open to have the bridge
carved.
> Then the whole cover jumped, with the bridge solidly glued and the
> strings in place, catching the teacher hands another more time.
>
> X’-)
>
> I laugh now, but… my father repaired it again, but I quitted that
> class soon. My fingers could not press those strings, they bit my
> fingers like knife edges. I think the teacher was relieved
I know that feeling. I’ve tried getting my instrument out a couple of
times in the past few years, and the lack of callouses on my fingertips
makes it actually fairly painful to play. Just takes some time to get
them re-established, maybe once my stepson is out of college we can get
it fixed and I can take it up again.
> Water soluble glue… oh my.
I wonder what the differences are in terms of tonal quality. The guy who
will fix my instrument when we’ve got the cash set aside probably could
tell me - it may be just because if they need to take it apart for
repairs, it’s easier to do and won’t damage the wood.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:36:01 +0000, Knurpht wrote:
> I went to see Nigel Kennedy play the “Quatro Stagioni” by Antonio
> Vivaldi years ago. A friend had tickets for a concert in London, but
> could not make it himself, so he offered me one to join his boyfriend.
> We thought dressing up was not necessary, we’d seen Nigel Kennedy on TV
> looking quite Boy George-ish, so no problem to go in a leather jacket,
> leather jeans and Doc Martin boots. That’s what we thought. No point of
> getting in at all, then suddenly we found ourselves amongst hundreds of
> tuxes…At that time I was a bit more of a revolutionaire, so I was
> proud that everybody was looking at us…
My wife attended a PDQ Bach concert in similar attire - but for that,
that type of attire is almost a requirement. 
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
for PDQ B she should have pierced her eye lid!
good stuff!!
–
DenverD
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
On 2010-10-05 19:49, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:40:08 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> When I was a kid, my parents though that I should learn to play
>> something. There was a… bandurria
>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandurria) at home, inherited from dunno
>> which grandfather or even farther back. It had wooden “sticks” to tune
>> it (dunno the English name).
>
> Very interesting! I’d never heard of this particular instrument before,
> how does it compare in sound to something like a Balalaika?
Somewhat similar, I guess.
Two samples, on a concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZgxRUMatG4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpOb49T6Ldo
(a member of that group also contributes(ed) to opensuse )
This is a somewhat similar instrument (laudón), much more “grave”, lower tone, alone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=ES&hl=es&v=uTK7ZyFiHNY
The commentary is interesting, but the English text must be an automated translation, it is terrible.
I haven’t been able to find a similar one for the “bandurria”.
manufacturing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFiJDeBIH14&feature=related
Mmm… they use screws? I have my doubts.
> On a violin, we call the tuning sticks “pegs” - if the string wraps
> around it and you twist the peg to raise/lower the pitch, that’s probably
> an accurate term to use.
Ah, pegs, yes. That must be the word.
>> I laugh now, but… my father repaired it again, but I quitted that
>> class soon. My fingers could not press those strings, they bit my
>> fingers like knife edges. I think the teacher was relieved
>
> I know that feeling. I’ve tried getting my instrument out a couple of
> times in the past few years, and the lack of callouses on my fingertips
> makes it actually fairly painful to play. Just takes some time to get
> them re-established, maybe once my stepson is out of college we can get
> it fixed and I can take it up again.
I don’t really have what is needed to play an instrument relatively well. I could (past tense) play
the piano a bit, and the guitar, but I’m not good enough even for a family reunion
Now that I think… that piano practice must have been good for my typing
>> Water soluble glue… oh my.
>
> I wonder what the differences are in terms of tonal quality. The guy who
> will fix my instrument when we’ve got the cash set aside probably could
> tell me - it may be just because if they need to take it apart for
> repairs, it’s easier to do and won’t damage the wood.
There must be a tonal difference, but the disassembling thing is an important point, too. And
tradition, too. I know there are big difference (sound and price) between hand made instruments, and
industrial equivalents. Some of these are very good, certainly good enough for most of us. But not
for concerts.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
On Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:24:52 +0000, DenverD wrote:
> for PDQ B she should have pierced her eye lid!
Ah, but that’s painful. Or sounds it.
> good stuff!!
I have to say, he’s absolutely ruined Beethoven’s 5th Symphony for me,
though. I keep listening for Bobby Corno’s flub in the first inning.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
heh!
you have to have a sense of humor…and, not take Ludwig’s line/vision
as the only one worth hearing…
pure fun.
–
DenverD
When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]